Reports of Arab soothsayers, Jewish rabbis, and Christian monks
Jewish rabbis, Christian monks, and Arab soothsayers had spoken about the apostle of God before his mission when his time drew near. As to the rabbis and monks, it was about his description and the description of his time which they found in their scriptures and what their prophets had enjoined upon them. As to the Arab soothsayers they had been visited by satans from the jinn with reports which they had secretly overheard before they were prevented from hearing by being pelted with stars. Male and female soothsayers continued to let fall mention of some of these matters to which the Arabs paid no attention until God sent him and these things which had been mentioned happened and they recognized them.
When the prophet's mission came the satans were prevented from listening and they could not occupy the seats in which they used to sit and steal the heavenly tidings for they were pelted with stars, and the jinn knew that that was due to an order which God had commanded concerning mankind, God said to His prophet Muhammad when He sent him as he was telling him about the jinn when they were prevented from listening and knew what they knew and did not deny what they saw; 'Say, it has been revealed to me that a number of the jinn listened and said 'We have heard a wonderful Quran which guides to the right path, and we believe in it and we will not associate anyone with our Lord and that He ( exalted be the glory of our Lord ) hath not chosen a wife or a son. A foolish one among us used to speak lies against God and that when men took refuge with the jinn, they increased them in revolt," ending with the words:" We used to sit on places threin to listen; he who listens now finds a flame waiting for him. We do not know whether evil is intended against those that are on earth or whether their lord wishes to guide them in the right path".
When the jinn heard the quran they knew that they had been prevented from listening before that so that revelation should not be mingled with news from heaven so that men would be confused with the tidings which came from God about it when the proof came and doubt was removed; so they believed and acknowledged the truth. Then 'They returned to their people warning them, saying, O our people we have heard a book which was revealed after Moses confirming what went before it, guiding to the truth and to the upright path.' 46:29-30
The Jewish warning about the apostle of God
Asim b. Umar told me that some of his tribesmen said: 'What induced us to accept Islam, apart from God's mercy and guidance, was what we used to hear the Jews say. We were polytheists worshipping idols, while they were people of the scriptures with knowledge which we did not possess. There was continual enmity between us, and when we got the better of them and excited their hate, they said, "The time of a prophet who is to be sent has now come. We will kill you with his aid as 'Ad and Iram perished." We often used to hear them say this. When God sent His apostle we accepted him when he called us to God and we realized what their threat meant and joined him before them. We believed in him but they denied him. Concerning us and them, God revealed the verse in the chapter of the Cow: "And when a book from God came to them confirming what they already had (and they were formerly asking for victory over the unbelievers), when what they knew came to them, they disbelieved it. The curse of God is on the unbelievers." 2:89
Salih b. Ibrahim said: 'We had a Jewish neighbour among B.Abdul-Ashhal, who came out to us one day from his house. ( At that time I was the youngest person in my house, wearing a small robe and lying in the courtyard.) He spoke of the resurrection, the reckoning, the scales, paradise, and hell. When he spoke of these things to the polytheists who thought that there could be no rising after death, they said to him, "Good gracious man! Do you think that such things could be that men can be raised from the dead to a place where there is a garden and a fire in which they will be recompensed for their deeds?" "Yes," he said, "and by Him whom men swear by, he would wish that he might be in the largest oven in his house rather than in that fire: that they would heat it and thrust him into it and plaster it over if he could get out from that fire on the following day." When they asked for a sign that this would be, he said, pointing with his hand to Mecca and the Yaman, "A prophet will be sent from the direction of this land." When they asked when he would appear, he looked at me, the youngest person, and said: "This boy, if he lives natural term, will see him," and by God, a night and a day did not pass before God sent Muhammad his apostle and he was living among us. We believed in him, but he denied him in his wickedness and envy. When we asked, "Aren't you the man who said these things?" he said, "Certainly, but this is not the man."
Asim b. Umar said to me, 'Do you know how Tha'laba b. Sa'ya and Asid b. Sa'ya and Asad b. Ubayd brothers of B. Qurayza, became muslims? They were with them during the days of ignorance; then they became their masters in Islam.' When I said that I did not know, he told me that a Jew from Syria, Ibnu'l-Hayyaban, came to us some years before islam and dwelt among us. ' I have never seen a better man than he who was not a Muslim. When we were living in the time of drought we asked him to come with us and pray for rain. He declined to do so unless we paid him something, and we asked how much he wanted, he said, "A bushel of dates or two bushels of barley." When we had duly paid up he went outside our harra and prayed for rain for us; and by God, hardly had he left his place when clouds passed over us and it rained. Not once nor twice did he do this. Later when he knew that he was about to die he said, "O Jews, what do you think made me leave a land of bread and wine to come to a land of hardship and hunger?" When we said that we could not think why, he said that he had come to this country expecting to see the emergence of a prophet whose time was at hand. This was the town where he would migrate and he was hoping that he would be sent so that he could follow him. "His time has come," he said, "and don't let anyone get to him before you, O Jews; for he will be sent to shed blood and to take captive the women and children of those who oppose him. Let not that keep you back from him."
When the apostle of God was sent and besieged B.Qurayza, those young men who were growing youths said, 'This is the prophet of whom Ibnu'l-Hayyaban testified to you.' They said that he was not; but the others asserted that he had been accurately described, so they went and became Muslims and saved their lives, their property, and their families. Such is what I have been told about the Jewish reports.
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